Volunteering

Do you want to Apply and volunteer or do internship with Empower And Care Organization in Uganda? Follow this link and get registered: FILL THE APPLICATION HERE

When you want to make a difference in

EACO – Volunteering is the solution and very rewarding. You get to meet many different types of people and form solid relationships based on mutual respect, understanding, and caring. As a EACO volunteer you will:

Make a difference in people's lives.

Develop a wide network.

Develop a range of skills and experience that can be used in everyday life.

Receive ongoing education and development.

Do your part in bringing about social change.

On a daily basis the students will travel to communities/Village where they will conduct in-home visits and observations. Here they will do interviewing of households on the health issues and struggles they have living in their villages and distance from a local hospital. They will participate in conversations and workshops; facilitate over 75 workshops during their time that will be held at local community centers, schools, and compounds. Follow this link for more details: https://www.omprakash.org/global/eaco-uganda

EACO – Volunteering

Your gift of time will help nourish and improve the quality of life of someone less fortunate than you.

Current volunteering opportunities

In your own communities

Campaigning and fundraising - in your own communities you can help by campaigning, raising awareness and fundraising for access to safe water and sanitation, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, reproductive health knowledge and practices, income generating activities for the disadvantaged and more.

In Uganda in the Mukono and Maracha districts

Hands-on assistance to families – help with the daily household chores of families with children that have been as a result of poverty, HIV/AIDS, violence, conflict related displacement or war. People with social work skills will find this experience very rewarding.

Help establish income-generating activities – provide assistance to our projects that create and implement income-generating opportunities for women, vulnerable children, orphans, youth and the elderly. You can become a valuable incubator of a new family business.

Office and logistic activities – deliver office support, assist with administrative tasks such as budgeting, accounting, updating paperwork, and maintaining personnel files on children and other beneficiaries. Bring your organizational experience to bear in a different setting.

Teach children – teach math, language, science, personal health, and other topics at schools. Organize day-care activities in the roles of teachers, camp counselors and day care workers. Good for people who love children. Bring your games, songs, musical instrument and enthusiasm to the village!

Peers education – deliver training to staff and volunteers on issues relevant to the activities where EACO is involved. Help enhance our knowledge base. Be a co-coordinator of one of our peer education projects or help develop a new peer education project. Be a teacher of teachers.

EACO particularly welcomes skilled professionals who can help us improve and develop our own capabilities. EACO welcomes enthusiasm and commitment in all volunteers and is committed to ensuring all voluntary experiences are as mutually beneficial as possible. We assure you will return home with memories of a very rewarding experience, just as our friend Claire Miller did.

All volunteers train through working closely with our local volunteers and are supervised by the organization director. When visiting rural areas the volunteers also work in partnership with other local volunteers.

You can become involved in a range of programs that appeal to your personal interests as some of the projects run in the mornings and the afternoons only. If you are unsure of which project you would like to become involved with, you can spend a few days visiting each of the different groups to find out more about what each does in both rural and urban.

Volunteers are people just like you! EACO volunteers, like our beneficiaries, come from all walks of life. Our volunteers vary in age, ethnicity, faith, gender, sexual orientation, and professional backgrounds. Some volunteers do the work because they want to do something outside of work. Some have experienced the loss of a loved one and the experience changed their lives. Some just like to help people. Our volunteers are students, lawyers, accountants, electricians,marketers, sales people, human resource people, home-makers, teachers, and retired people. Many volunteers state that their life is rich and fulfilled and they want to "give back" to their community.

Program details

The program fee is negotiable, depending on the period of your stay at EACO.

But the fee guideline is £100 for a week, $160 for a week and Euro 125 for a week, This fee MUST be paid directly to our bank Account before coming at least two weeks before /or upon your placement. There are no application or registration fees required.

The fee covers the following:

Accommodation: inMukono, EACO can arrange for volunteers to stay with a local family or in a guest house. In Maracha the volunteer must stay with the project co-ordinator in the area.

Qualifications: EACO particularly welcomes skilled professionals that can help the organization to improve and develop, but EACO welcomes the enthusiasm and commitment of all willing volunteers. EACO is committed to ensuring all voluntary experiences are as mutually beneficial as possible, and can find accommodation with local families or in guest houses. Regardless of the duration of your time, EACO will welcome you as one of the family, and give you the chance to make life-long friends in the community, REALLY make a difference, and work with a truly inspirational community based organization.

Health Requirements: Volunteers must take anti-malaria pills.

Equipment/Clothing: Suitable clothes for hot/rainy climate. EACO is a well respected organization, both in the community and internationally. We ask that volunteers are clean and presentable when undertaking their work in the community.

Insurance: Volunteer's responsibility.

Selection and support

Interview: No interviews.

Training: Short-term volunteers train through working closely with local volunteers. Longer-term volunteers can benefit from the training that local volunteers receive, on counseling, HIV and other relevant topics.

Supervision: Volunteer are supervised by the organization director. When visiting rural areas and schools the volunteer work in partnership with other local volunteers.

Debriefing and Certificates: Participants can request a written reference.

Disabled Policy: We can accept volunteers with a disability depending on the disability.

Child Protection Policy: EACO has a Child Protection Policy.

Liability Insurance: Volunteers are not covered by liability insurance.

Volunteer Experiences

'I am currently volunteering with Empower and Care Organization based in Mukono, Uganda and my experience so far has been one of discovery and inspiration. The work EACO do is just incredible; they work with the community, not giving out hand outs but actually training the impoverished people with skills to help them escape the cycle of poverty to become worthwhile members of the community.'

Claire Miller, EACO International Volunteer

The organization is made up of an enthusiastic team who go out into the field themselves. Each member of staff including the volunteers, are heavily involved with each project from the beginning to end and then ongoing to ensure the processes they have put in place are active and the skills taught are being used.

The volunteer work is hands on and you can really get involved by visiting communities, speaking to the women and children who are being helped, learning about past and present struggles the country is facing and seeing projects take place with real life results.

On the field I have been taken to a school to see the conditions the children are taught under. The school has been set up in a church which is less than ideal as all the children regardless of age are being taught in an open plan area. The young children who need to be singing and playing are right next to the older kids who need to be concentrating and studying. A lot of parents who don’t want their children studying in a church would rather them stay at home, others can’t afford the small school fee and those that can are paying it in installments making it increasingly difficult to pay the teachers wages. The school needs funding to be able to build a separate building on the land with proper classrooms, equipment and teachers.

I have also visited homes of widowed women where I have seen the results of the mushroom farming and the piggery’s. The women have been empowered by the skills taught to them and are now making a living and looking after their children by using these skills.

Information and training on any of the projects EACO are involved in is readily given, the family I am staying with are friendly and warm hearted and have made me feel right at home catering for my each and every need. The people of Uganda are so friendly and so proud of their country and culture and it is an absolute pleasure to be able to be part of such an amazing organization like Empower and Care who are doing such great work for these amazing people.

I would highly recommend this volunteer program to anyone who is looking to broaden their horizon and give something back to the world by participating in volunteer work and I am very much looking forward to the rest of my time here.'

Making the most of your free time

Over thee weekends we can organize and visit some of the tourist places, this will be at your own expense and can include: Source of the Nile in Jinja, Water falls, Game parks and others.